Windows 7 : giving me hell of a headache

[TuxKernel]

So finally i've got a windows 7 copy. I fired it up in Vmware Workstation(As i'm not giving any physical resources to a microsoft product, no offence. All my life i was a linux/unix user and i'm happy to stay that way. i will only run vstudio so that i can have some familiarity with the windows development environment )

My friends said very good things about this version of windows. And also praised the power shell. But as far as i have seen nothing looks or acts better than then my past short encounter with windows xp. Only thing i can see is the UI is bloated with graphics and annoying stuff just keep popping up which i do not need. another thing the Power shell is terribly slow. which kills the idea of having a powerful programming shell if it responds the same rate as the bloated graphics. The default text editor of windows is notepad which is kind of a joke. It does not have anything at all. why microsoft is shipping this poorly designed software with their system is beyond my understanding. its command line back end EDIT is also useless. Recently i came to know edit was based on PICO. which was bought by Mr.Gates in the early days of microsoft. I kind of dont understand why he bought the worst editor possible when several superior editors existed. even ken Thompsons original "ed" from 70's outperforms edit or notepad in every way possible. So i first downloaded gvim and emacs so that atleast i can edit stuff.

After installing i tried to update windows. It installed several security patches. And i made a mistake of directly plugging a usb drive into windows and a malware crawled in. It was written by a fellow classmate at the uni 6 months ago as a joke. but quickly it got into every windows machine in our university dorms. And surprisingly it is not detected by many commercial antivirus program. NOD 32 commercial version can detect it. after paying a huge money for windows itself, spending nearly all of my savings from my part time job, i am in no mood of buying another piece of expensive software. So i tried to clean it by several free antivirus program and finally avira could detect it and disinfect it.

Visual studio is a huge monolith which eats resources like a angry hungry beast. So i tried to find out a way so that i dont have to fire up the whole ide to start working. to do that i need to use compilers, make utility and debuggers separately. i havent managed to do that successfully.

Lastly i asked my friends advocated windows why he is using it. He answered that a microsoft developer likely to get more paid or find better paying job. It reminded me a famous quote from richard stallman, "Dont let the money controlling you". I felt terrible about the idea of consuming a software which i do not like or feel comfortable with only because somewhere down the road i will be needing a shiny house , a shiny car etc. The fun and excitement i have always enjoyed in programming and computers, algorithms, Artificial intelligence all of them are sacrificed straight ahead for having a life which fundamentally broken social systems approves of.

So i think someday i will be strong enough to wipe clean this windows virtual machine and all is malengineered flaws with it.

 

[Dwarf]

I'm sure that there are plenty of Windows users out there who can say similar things about Linux and the other OSes (MAC OSX being such an example). In turn, these other users might find things a bit frustrating when they try out an OS that is not familiar to them. All OSes have their nuances and ways of doing things and when you get used to the OS and its limitations you will find things a lot easier. No OS is perfect, and there are always features present in OS A that we would like to see in OS B (and vice-versa).

 

[logicearth]

From what I'm reading I think the root of the problem is that you are trying to run it full on in a Virtual Machine. I assume the version of VMware on Linux also allows Vista/7 to run with Aero correct? You probably want to turn that off and use classic.

There is another option, however, just as you can install Ubuntu on a Windows computer using Wubi, Windows 7 (I believe Professional and up) will let you install it into a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) and boot from that. However, I never used that method on/with Linux. But I do use it to keep my development environment separated from my every day computing.

* Typing this on a Dell Inspiron Mini 1010 netbook. Atom N270 1.6 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Intel Integrated Graphics running Windows 7 with full Aero no performance issues.

 

[marsmimar]

All my life i was a linux/unix user and i'm happy to stay that way ... But as far as i have seen nothing looks or acts better than then my past short encounter with windows xp ... After installing i tried to update windows. It installed several security patches. And i made a mistake of directly plugging a usb drive into windows and a malware crawled in ... I felt terrible about the idea of consuming a software which i do not like or feel comfortable with only because somewhere down the road i will be needing a shiny house , a shiny car etc ... So i think someday i will be strong enough to wipe clean this windows virtual machine and all is malengineered flaws with it.

Many people on this forum have apparently been using Windows since Windows 1.0 circa 1985. Some folks go even farther back with DOS and Unix. We come to forums like this to learn and share experiences. No one is forcing any of us to use something we don't like. Not happy with Windows? Uninstall it today rather than someday.

Have a real nice day.

 

[TuxKernel]

I absolutely understand this familiarity problem and i also do not call myself someone who is not willing to learn. So i will be tweaking windows stuff for sure. Operating systems are designed to serve the people not the other way around. As different people always have different choices so its all comes down to a matter of personal choice.

I have disabled the Aero ....it runs better now. spawning a app does not require to raise the temptation of killing the process from task manager.

Another thing i still dont understand that is the permissions associated with files in windows. As i see there is a default administrator account ....what privileges are taken away from normal user generally?

I seem to be able to install stuff without logging into admin account.

 

[Teerex]

So finally i've got a windows 7 copy. I fired it up in Vmware Workstation(As i'm not giving any physical resources to a microsoft product, no offence. All my life i was a linux/unix user and i'm happy to stay that way. i will only run vstudio so that i can have some familiarity with the windows development environment )

My friends said very good things about this version of windows. And also praised the power shell. But as far as i have seen nothing looks or acts better than then my past short encounter with windows xp. Only thing i can see is the UI is bloated with graphics and annoying stuff just keep popping up which i do not need. another thing the Power shell is terribly slow. which kills the idea of having a powerful programming shell if it responds the same rate as the bloated graphics. The default text editor of windows is notepad which is kind of a joke. It does not have anything at all. why microsoft is shipping this poorly designed software with their system is beyond my understanding. its command line back end EDIT is also useless. Recently i came to know edit was based on PICO. which was bought by Mr.Gates in the early days of microsoft. I kind of dont understand why he bought the worst editor possible when several superior editors existed. even ken Thompsons original "ed" from 70's outperforms edit or notepad in every way possible. So i first downloaded gvim and emacs so that atleast i can edit stuff.

After installing i tried to update windows. It installed several security patches. And i made a mistake of directly plugging a usb drive into windows and a malware crawled in. It was written by a fellow classmate at the uni 6 months ago as a joke. but quickly it got into every windows machine in our university dorms. And surprisingly it is not detected by many commercial antivirus program. NOD 32 commercial version can detect it. after paying a huge money for windows itself, spending nearly all of my savings from my part time job, i am in no mood of buying another piece of expensive software. So i tried to clean it by several free antivirus program and finally avira could detect it and disinfect it.

Visual studio is a huge monolith which eats resources like a angry hungry beast. So i tried to find out a way so that i dont have to fire up the whole ide to start working. to do that i need to use compilers, make utility and debuggers separately. i havent managed to do that successfully.

Lastly i asked my friends advocated windows why he is using it. He answered that a microsoft developer likely to get more paid or find better paying job. It reminded me a famous quote from richard stallman, "Dont let the money controlling you". I felt terrible about the idea of consuming a software which i do not like or feel comfortable with only because somewhere down the road i will be needing a shiny house , a shiny car etc. The fun and excitement i have always enjoyed in programming and computers, algorithms, Artificial intelligence all of them are sacrificed straight ahead for having a life which fundamentally broken social systems approves of.

So i think someday i will be strong enough to wipe clean this windows virtual machine and all is malengineered flaws with it.

Good morning to you too, dear troll.

Now let's talk about ice-cream. Does it do more harm than good?

 

[eldinv]

LOL... What a shame, running Windows 7 on VMware will never give you a true experience.

This thread needs to be locked and removed.

 

[logicearth]

Another thing i still dont understand that is the permissions associated with files in windows. As i see there is a default administrator account ....what privileges are taken away from normal user generally?

I seem to be able to install stuff without logging into admin account.

Basically, permissions are setup the same way Linux is setup. Everything in your user directory (C:\Users\[username] is akin to \home\[username]) is is accessible and write able by the respective owner. Aside from a couple of directories that have a "arrow" overlay, these directories are specifically setup to deny access to "Everyone". Those directories are called Junctions their only purpose is for compatibility for older applications that have hardcoded paths.

As for what is taken away for normal users...Well everything that you would imagine that of course still allows a user to run applications, and modify there user directory to there hearts content.

As for other directories, like "Program Files" and "Windows" are given special permissions from a process known as "TrustedInstaller". When you first install Windows you created a user that is part of the Administrators group. However, just like on Ubuntu the accounts that are part of the Administrators group don't have much power outside of there user directory without elevating with "sudo" or equivalent. This is where UAC comes in, its the Windows version of sudo.

UAC allows you to install applications and do administrative tasks on Windows without logging into an Administrator (or root as it is known on Linux) account. This also lets you run applications like Firefox without giving it god powers, like most users still stuck with the Windows XP model.

 

[si8mon]

I fired it up in Vmware Workstation....

And that is your whole problem.

 

[Teerex]

LOL... What a shame, running Windows 7 on VMware will never give you a true experience.

This thread needs to be locked and removed.

What VMWare? He's lying through his teeth. VMWare actually costs money, remember?

That powershell tidbit is a dead giveaway. The guy has never even seen a cmdlet in his trolling life, let alone xecuted one. Let's move on to better uses of our time, shall we?

 

[si8mon]

VMWare actually costs money, remember?

LOL I know lots of people who have paid for software (me included) and they are not trolls.

 

[TuxKernel]

LOL... What a shame, running Windows 7 on VMware will never give you a true experience.

This thread needs to be locked and removed.

Is it my crime that i started computing in linux/unix machines?

 

[TuxKernel]

LOL... What a shame, running Windows 7 on VMware will never give you a true experience.

This thread needs to be locked and removed.

What VMWare? He's lying through his teeth. VMWare actually costs money, remember?

That powershell tidbit is a dead giveaway. The guy has never even seen a cmdlet in his trolling life, let alone xecuted one. Let's move on to better uses of our time, shall we?

I was brought up in a remote place as my dad was researching some weird tropical diseases in tribal community.....One thing i have learned in those "so called " backward society is ....."u can treat a people in a good way whenever u want, but if u want to treat people bad then u should be supercareful "

And i have paid for vmware , i needed vmware as i need to run several linux and other unix distros. (I'm currently running 6 of them).......

 

[mitchell65]

Is it my crime that i started computing in linux/unix machines?

Have just read through this thread and not sure whether you are seeking help or sympathy!

 

[Al Fairclough]

I have used Linux for years...and dumped it in favor of Windows 7. For my purposes, Win 7 works great and as for 64 Bit Linux, I have only two words to say - Flash Player.

 

[Teerex]

I was brought up in a remote place as my dad was researching some weird tropical diseases in tribal community.....One thing i have learned in those "so called " backward society is ....."u can treat a people in a good way whenever u want, but if u want to treat people bad then u should be supercareful "

And i have paid for vmware , i needed vmware as i need to run several linux and other unix distros. (I'm currently running 6 of them).......

One thing I've learned being on the internets is to recognize a good troll when I see one. You're well prepared, but your half-literacy in general and the isolated sprinkles of outright lies in your posts give you away. E. g., you cannot get malware from a USB shtick unless you *do* something yourself. Dear Win-non-sudoed user, Win 7 doesn't Auto-run those, and it especially doesn't run them with system privileges.

It'll take a bit more than a well prepared assortment of pieces of IT texts and facts to get me to believe you. At this point I doubt you could write a 'hello World'.

 

[Tews]

Lets not turn this into a flame fest ...

 

[Dwarf]

   Warning

Let's keep this civilised please.